"Sunita Lyn Williams - Science City - Kolkata 2013-04-02 5866" by Biswarup Ganguly is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Sunita Williams created a record!
[[NASA::It stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It is a government organisation in the USA that does space exploration.]] [[astronaut::A person whose job requires them to travel and work in a spacecraft and in space.]] Sunita Williams has made history! She and her teammate Butch Wilmore have been at the [[International Space Station::A massive structure sent into space. It orbits the Earth and serves as a base for people working and travelling in space.]] (ISS) for many months. Recently, they went on a spacewalk (a walk outside the ISS) that lasted 5 hours and 26 minutes!
This was Williams’ 9th spacewalk and Wilmore’s 5th. But this one was special-Williams broke a record! She now has 62 hours and 6 minutes of total spacewalking time-more than any other woman!
Before this, Peggy Whitson held the record with 60 hours and 21 minutes. But Whitson still has the most [[spacewalks::The duration of time spent in space by an astronaut outside of a spacecraft.]] by a woman (10 in total).
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore remain stuck!
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore arrived at the ISS on 6th June 2024 on Boeing’s Starliner spaceship. They were supposed to stay only a week, but things went wrong!
The Starliner had problems, so NASA sent it back to Earth—without them! Now, they have been in space for months! Some people even say they are stuck, but NASA is working hard to bring them home.
NASA has asked [[SpaceX::A private company that builds rockets and spaceships that are used by NASA to send astronauts to space, launch satellites, etc. The company was founded by Elon Musk.]] to help bring them back. Reports say they could return in March or April 2025. Let’s hope they get home soon!
Quick Revision
Sunita Williams set a new record for the longest spacewalking time by a woman.
Her 9th spacewalk lasted 5 hours 26 minutes on the International Space Station (ISS).
She now has 62 hours 6 minutes of total spacewalk time, beating Peggy Whitson’s record.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore went to space in June 2024 but are still there due to spaceship problems.
NASA plans to bring them back with help from SpaceX in early 2025.
